South Korea

Minsi Sun, a linguistics major, finished out her 2nd year this past summer at Yonsei International Summer School in South Korea. During her experience she took many photos to share what she saw and learned there, so keep scrolling to learn more about it!

Taken in a Buddhist temple in Gangwon province. In the picture I am making a wish by writing on the tile, following one of the Buddhist traditions.

Taken outside of an intestine store in Sinchon. Like many other Asian countries, Korean people enjoy eating the inside of animals, and the intestines are popular choices. I personally think they are too oily.

Taken at the entrance to an old train station. The sign reads “To Pyeongyang”, which is the capital of North Korea. People were able to take a train to North Korea before but not anymore.

Taken in a fusional Korean restaurant in Seoul. The traditional lamp has both Korean and Chinese characters on them, a common way of writing before modern time. Before the 15th century, Korea used Chinese characters for their writing system before the invention of Hangul.

Taken at a famous restaurant for soybean paste noodles. The dish actually came from China, but now the Korean version is far more famous. They taste quite different, though.

Taken at the palace from Silla Period in Gyeongju. I was amazed by how the side was well preserved and how pretty it is at night.

Taken at the MBC (Culture Broadcasting Company) theme park in Seoul. Interesting pictures can be taken with famous dramas and entertainment shows. What a good way for people to experience K-pop!

Taken at the Incheon International Airport. Staff members would dress up like the royal family and parade around the airport. It is such a good way of exporting their culture.

Taking pictures in the traditional Korean clothing—Hanbok in the royal palace Gyeongbokgong in Seoul. If you go into the palace wearing Hanbok, the entrance fee is waived. All kinds of tourists wear colorful Hanbok on the street, and it is such a good way to promote the traditional costume.

Jonathan Thomas is a Second Year student, currently enrolled in the UVA Exchange: Seoul National University Program in Seoul, South Korea.

Seoul National University is nestled into a contour on the side of one of Seoul’s largest mountains, Gwankak mountain. The mountain is located to the south of the city, and like most of Korea, is particularly picturesque during the fall months when the trees covering the mountains turn from green to autumnal colors. Getting off at Gwacheon station puts you at the base of the mountain path that begins the ascent to the top of Gwanak mountain. The path winds its way up, following a clear stream which makes it way down the mountain in the opposite direction.

Just before the peak of the mountain, there are a series of buildings, where you’ll find an ornate and active Buddhist temple, with its members still operating and maintaining the temple. However, this isn’t out of the ordinary. Walking up to the top and finding a temple is quite common in Korea, with many of them located on or around mountains. This doesn’t mean that Buddhists or Buddhist monks are in anyway secluded. Often times you’ll see monks with their heads shaved dressed in gray robes riding the subway. Additionally, if you take the bus from Seoul National University to the closest subway station on the east side of the school, you will be thrust into the busy area of Nakseongdae station. The busy streets are home to coffee shops, restaurants, stores, and churches. The churches are highlighted by the spires jutting up from them, but apart from this they look like any other building on the street.

What is remarkable about this is the coexistence of both of these religions in harmony. Many times, religions butt heads, clash in their ideology and generally don’t get along. While there have been rises and falls in popularity of both religions in Korea over the centuries, Korea has had a history of religious acceptance, especially of foreign religions, and the divide between Christianity and Buddhism is about fifty-fifty. This has created a dynamic that has continued into the present. The religious order of Korea isn’t something of tension, but rather a virtue, where the religion you hold is your belief and the religion another person holds is their own belief. This has created a society where Buddhist temples and Christian churches sit virtually side-by-side without the slightest hint of animosity.

While this may seem trivial, to me it’s a refreshing reassurance. Currently, there are quite a lot religious conflicts spread across the world, and these conflicts are some of the most difficult to resolve. Therefore, to see a country and culture like Korea where two religions can coexist, sans conflict, gives me hope that those conflicts have some sort of resolution, and makes me appreciated Korea for its unique cultural aspects like this one.

Elizabeth Kim is an Economics major, who attended the Spring 2017 UVA Exchange: Seoul National University Program in her third year.

This is a picture of the streets of Hongdae. It’s always so crowded, especially when there are street performers like in the picture! You can’t really tell who is the performer because the crowd is so huge! There is always one section of the road in Hongdae where there are many street performs dancing to or singing popular Korean pop songs. I thought it was interesting that in the U.S., many street performers are also asking for money, but here it is a lot of young people that want to show off their talents.

As exchange students, we are part of a program called SNU Buddy where we are put in groups with Korean students who help us get settled and create group events. One event was to have our own jangteo called International Food Day. It was the biggest jangteo on campus, as seen in the picture! Students from many different countries cooked two dishes from their country that could sell a lot. I participated as well on the U.S. team and we decided to make chili and fried Oreos. The fried Oreos sold really well because many Koreans hadn’t seen it before and they all said it was a food that they would expect to come from the U.S. because it was fried and would have very many calories.

From April 27 to May 7 is the Lotus Lantern Festival to celebrate Buddha’s birthday, which is on May 3. These are some of the lanterns that were put up at Bongeunsa Temple in Gangnam. It’s always cool to see historical monuments tucked away in the huge city of Seoul. The lanterns were so pretty to look at.

Lotte World at night was very pretty. This is a part of the portion of the park that is outdoors. I thought it resembled the castle at Disneyworld! Its interesting one company, like Lotte, that can be involved in so many things. For example, Lotte runs this amusement park but also many department stores, fast food restaurants, hotels, and many more.

This is the cherry blossom festival in the beginning of April. Though there are many cherry blossoms all around Korea, one of the popular places to go see them is at Seokchon Lake, where this picture was taken. I submitted this picture because you can see how crowded it was! Afterwards, I could understand why everyone wanted to go see the cherry blossoms – they’re only in bloom for about 1 – 2 weeks.

More street food in Hongdae!! There are always so many street food trucks and it’s tempting to stop at each one. There are especially many in Hongdae because it is a very popular location for young people to go to eat, drink, and shop. Here, my friend and I are eating fried dumplings and the vendor is also selling tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) and odeng (fish cake).

Zachary Diamond is studying abroad in South Korea and Japan on UVA’s short-term Commerce program Finance in Northeast Asia.

After visiting Samsung in Gangnam, a group of us ventured to Bongeunsa, a Buddhist temple constructed in 794 A.D. The first thing was the temple is absolutely beautiful, especially because they are currently celebrating Buddha’s birthday so thousands of colorful paper lanterns are hung up throughout the temple. It was extremely relaxing to walk through the entire area. Apart from the central prayer building, the temple is built into a hillside allowing for a small dirt trail surrounding by trees and a giant statue of Buddha that people would circumambulate in prayer.

Below is my favorite picture I’ve taken so far on the trip as it resembles the most fascinating part of this temple. From the spot of the picture, I was standing around trees, listening to nature and wind set off peaceful wind chimes. However, directly across the street are large class skyscrapers that hold offices for national and global firms. In Seoul I found a direct contrast of modern and traditional that is not evident in the United States. While Korea feels like a new and foreign land, the skyscrapers remind me just how similar it is to a large city in the states.

At the temple, I found myself conflicted between respect and experience. At the temple, people were in deep prayer and I felt as if I was trespassing on their special place. Especially at the statue of the Buddha, I was hesitant to walk close to the statue as I did not want to distract or interfere with those in prayer. Personally, I would be extremely thrown off and probably mad at anyone who was being a tourist at my temple back home. While for me the Bongeunsa was a spot to visit on this trip to Korea, for many people it is their sacred space and normal temple. The more I stay in Seoul, the more I realize it is just like any other city, and that makes me feel somewhat guilty about trying seeing special places of the city as I’m treating the city as a spectacle and not what the locals treat it as, home.

Jessica Park, a Media Studies and Studio Art major, is currently studying abroad in Korea on the UVA Exchange at Korea University. Check out her photo blog below!

Taken at my grandmother’s apartment where she fed me my first homemade meal in Korea (I am Korean-American). I took this photo because of the authenticity and history behind her Korean cooking, which was passed on from generation to generation. Korean meals are set up with rice, several homemade fermented side dishes, and usually a soup or protein.

At a barbecue restaurant near my grandparent’s place. I took this photo because this way of cooking meat is very typical in Korean culture. The meat is cooked on the table in front of you and the man typically handles the meat, which can be paired with cooked kimchi, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and garlic. This particular restaurant had the meat cooked on top of a traditional stone rice pot.

Ehwa Women’s University in Edae, Seoul. I took this photo because this university is one of the top most prestigious universities in Korea and I felt a sense of empowerment to be a Korean woman standing there amongst all the other strong, young women students.

Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, Seoul, which is the tallest tower in Korea. It was recently built, and boasts 123 floors, making it the 5th tallest tower in the world.

At the National Museum of Korea. I remembering taking this photo in awe of how beautiful the building was. I hadn’t been so amazed by a building since my first trip to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. This museum is the largest museum in Korea and tells the story of ancient Korean history all the way to modern times.

Namyangju Film Studios — This location was a setup of a traditional Korean village for drama shoots and movie shoots. Many top movies and dramas were shot in this village setup such as Dongyi and JSA.

Korea University Graduation Day— I remember wandering out from my dorm looking to explore around the school, with no real plans for the day, and stumbling across the graduation. The ceremonies were all over, so all the families were taking photos with their children in fancy graduation robes, giving and receiving flowers and gifts. One family even asked me to take a photo for them.

Sulbing—Sulbing is the one of the top dessert cafe chains in Korea. Dessert cafes are not very popular or existent in America, but they are huge in Korea. Groups of friends go to these cafes, order one or two large dessert dishes such as the one pictured (green tea chocolate bingsoo) and share them while relaxing and talking.

Local street food—Street food is a common and large part of the city life in Korea. They mainly sell fried corndogs, fried sausages, rice cakes, and fish cakes. Each item is roughly $1-3 and you stand as you eat.

Traditional Korean Painting Club — I had tried out a club at Korea University that focuses on painting traditional Korean paintings with traditional Korean ink. There is a specific method on how to hold the brush, what kind of lines one should draw, and how thick the lines should be. The materials used are also very specific for the paper, ink and brush.

Katin Tran is currently studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea. She is a 3rd year Computer Science and Linguistics major. Take a look at her photos thus far!

The main entrance to the Namsangol Hanok Folk Village. Namsan Park, located in the center of Seoul, has many entry points, including this grand gate that opens up to an array of traditional-style buildings.

The main performance stage of Namsangol Hanok Folk Village. Large folk and traditional performances are held on this stage as the stage and its surrounding area are both spacious and wide. When not in use, anyone can walk around it and also lounge in the structure behind it. Make sure to take your shoes off first!

Entrance to Seoul’s Thousand Year Time Capsule. Located in the Namsangol Hanok Village, this time capsule was buried in 1994 to commemorate Seoul’s 600 year anniversary as the country’s capital city. The capsule itself is buried in an open space, but that space is enclosed within elevated walls and fences. To reach the capsule, one must walk down stone pathways.

Wall inscriptions about the Thousand Year Time Capsule. The inscriptions lie directly across from the entrance to the capsule and are inscribed in both Korean and English, a plus for international tourists! The capsule’s name comes from its future opening in one thousand years from its date of burial, and inside the capsule lies 600 chosen representative cultural items.

The entrance to Jogyesa temple in central Seoul. The temple is conveniently located in the middle of the city, making it very accessible to those coming to and from work. As such, the temple is very popular and full of people, even on weekdays. The temple is currently adorned with colorful lanterns in preparation for Buddha’s birthday.

The Great Hero Hall of Jogyesa. As the central building on the temple grounds, the elevated hall serves as the primary meditation space. The outside walls, as well as the inside ones, are decorated with murals of important moments in the Buddhist religion.

Central altar in the Great Hero Hall at Jogyesa. Gigantic in size, the three-set of Buddhas on the central altar are atypically larger than most of the statues found at temples. The overwhelming size provides a larger sense of presence and can make meditators feel mentally closer to Buddha. Worshippers will often provide donations in a box to the side of the altar or provide food offerings on the altar.

Genevieve Jordan updates us on her time in Korea as she reaches the halfway point of her semester.

I knew it would arrive sooner or later, but to be honest, I was a bit shocked by how quickly the halfway point appeared on my daily calendar. I’m not quite sure what to make of it all. About two and a half months ago, I wrote this:

In the grand scheme of things, it really is only 120 days, but those few days offer an infinite amount of possibilities. I have 120 days to be scared, uncomfortable, excited, nervous, happy, and every other emotion I dare feel. So, South Korea, bring it on. I’m ready to fall in love with Seoul.

Rereading my first blog post is surreal. All at once it feels like I wrote it just yesterday and in a different lifetime. The song “Mamma Mia,” by ABBA, immediately comes to mind. The lines“Just one look and I can hear a bell ring/ One more look and I forget everything” in particular,but, of course, not in the exact way the song means. Though, like the subject of the song, I am a whole mix of emotions and cannot seem to straighten myself out.

Two months in. Two months out. Either way you look at it, it’s depressing and/or exciting.Naturally, I wish I could only focus on the exciting parts: I’ve been living in Seoul for two months,exploring new surroundings, meeting new friends every weekend, and having the time of my life. Yet, I cannot help but dwell on the depressing part: it’s halfway over. In the moment,everything goes by slowly; everyday, every week feels never ending, but suddenly you blink and time flew by while you were standing still.

The good news is, if the second half of my semester is anywhere close to as amazing as the first, I’m in for a real treat. It’s been two months, and I feel the most confident and happy I’ve felt in ages. I am infinitely more comfortable with being myself and spending time alone; being uncomfortable does not scare me anymore.

Of course, I’ve had bad days. I’ve been grumpy. I’ve cried. I’ve even been mad, which for me, takes a lot. But if my semester abruptly ended tomorrow, for whatever reason, I wouldn’t regret one little bit, and that is a wonderful feeling. Going abroad has been the most fantastically indescribable experience I could imagine. Here’s to another two months of being scared,uncomfortable, excited, nervous, happy, and every other emotion I dare feel. And Seoul, you already have my heart.